Ever been out shopping and see a piece from a far and love it? Then as you begin to approach and get closer, it looks like it would go up in flames should you get close to a candle? Yea, there’s a lot of that out there these days. Very disappointing.

I’m not a fan of faux fur or faux leather, I like the real thing. I know the faux fur vest, coat & scarf is very popular right now but you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t get on the bandwagon. That being said, I actually own a pair of faux leather shorts from Zara. Yes, I contradicting myself. It’s rare but it happens.

Rest assure the jacket in this look isn’t faux. It’s 100% cowhide. Thinly cut & super soft to the touch. However as I stood in my closet and held the pieces next to one another, I felt as though the shorts looked better than the real thing. Is this a possible case of, faux wins over real? It just might.

*Excuse the severity of this look. I would never do head-to-toe leather but this post is to show comparison*.

I know what you’re thinking, “big deal….your in culottes again”. “We’ve all been wearing culottes for over a year now”. Well, you’d be right.

With this post, I’m in culottes but its really about me being back in Manhattan. As some of you might remember, I moved in to a new apartment several months back. I did a post about it, click here to see “New Dwelling” . About a month in, my place was flooded by a pipe on the roof. (Being on the top floor, not all that fabulous in my case). The complex promised to fix my apartment and they most certainly did. In the interim, I moved back home to Long Island. What a nightmare. An hour and ten minute commute, door to door everyday. Yikes!

You can imagine how excited I was to move back to NYC! On the very first weekend back in the city, I booked a shoot.

My complex has wonderful manicured grounds. Tree-lined pathways and a water fountain. They have a tennis court, a basketball court & even a deck hockey court. There’s really no need to go very far to take a picture…… so I didn’t.

Ever feel like your style is in a rut, completely predictable and you’re really wanting a change? Well that’s how I was feeling last month. This winter season did a number on New York City as well as my personal style. Every look was based around how many layers I had to put on. That can cramp ones creative outlet when putting an ensemble together.

I went in my closet and came out with a look I thought was wintry, fun and shall we say…. a little exposing.